The present invention relates to the field of compact sticks in general, in particular compact walking sticks used both in sports, especially hiking, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, Nordic walking, and the like, and in orthopaedics. Herein below specific reference will be made to hiking sticks for simplicity of description without any intention of limitation to such use.
Compact trekking sticks of the “foldable” type and of the “telescopic” type are widely available on the market thanks to the fact that, when closed or folded, they assume a reduced overall dimension so as to be easily transported even in a backpack. These compact sticks are also very popular due to the fact that they can be rapidly assembled, providing a hiking stick as resistant as any other stick formed by a single piece.
Compact sticks of the “foldable” type are formed by at least three or more hollow tubular portions of which an upper one comprising a grip in soft material, a final portion provided with a pointed end, and an intermediate portion connected between the two. These portions are connected one to the other by means of a rope placed inside of the portions of the stick which holds them together and makes this stick foldable in three or more parts.
However, in order to have a smaller overall length dimension, these foldable sticks should be formed by as many portions as possible, for example four or five: for example, sticks foldable into four parts have a very small overall length dimension, generally around about 32 cm. This, however, involves an increase in the overall width dimension of the folded stick.
This problem is instead not found in the telescopic sticks formed by two, three or four hollow tubular portions, similarly to foldable sticks which are however telescopic and connected one to the other by means of locking devices suitable for regulating the extension of one portion in relation to the other. These sticks are also assembled rapidly and provide a hiking stick as resistant as any other stick formed by a single piece. Moreover they have the advantage of having, when closed, a reduced overall width dimension (volume) in that equal to that of a single portion of the stick and far smaller than foldable sticks.
However, these telescopic sticks exhibit an overall length dimension such that they only can be stored in capacious backpacks or bags, for example telescopic sticks with three sections generally have an overall length dimension of the order of 60 cm.